1 year, 11 months ago

What is a 'subscription trap' and how can Australians avoid it?

From streaming services to exercise apps to dating site memberships, have you lost count of how many paid subscriptions you've signed up for? "We used to get our milk delivered — that was a subscription — also newspapers and magazines … but it's really exploded over the last decade," Grimmer tells ABC RN's Life Matters. Grimmer says the "subscription economy" now has a global value of more than US$275 billion, a figure that's continuing to grow. But, crucially, she says businesses don't just use one dark pattern to lock us in, "they're layering them and they're making it much harder than it should be for us to get out". "They're using the old EU difficult-to-unsubscribe process, even though it was found to be unfair … because we don't have the laws and protections here," Turner says.

ABC
Dark Amazon Companies Subscription Patterns Turner Australians Cancel Subscriptions Trap Unfair Dark Patterns Consumer Advocates Grimmer Unfair Trading Practices
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Crackdown on subscription traps could save consumers £14 a month

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I’m in the Amazon Prime of my life, but I won’t get fooled again
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I’m in the Amazon Prime of my life, but I won’t get fooled again

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Amazon accused of duping millions of customers over Prime sign-ups by US Federal Trade Commission

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